Xunantunich Things to Do

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The Royal Palace is located on the A III compound, with four structures surrounding the plaza; the main building is the restored Royal Palace the place where the ruler lived. The building can be climbed and offers a magnificent views of the main pyramid of El Castillo and the jungle around.

The entrance to the ruins is a long road passing through the jungle, a nice walk where you can see birds, monkeys and even tucans. There´s a small information center with maps, pictures, information boards and a small reproduction of the city.

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The west side of the structure has a 10-ft stucco made replica covering the original freezes. These freezes once decorated the entire construction and depict representations of the God Sun, the Moon, Venus and some of the Mayan days. There are also some headless men who were deliberately beheaded by the Maya for some reason.

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The main feature of the site is the huge and partially excavated pyramid of El Castillo (the Castle) wich rises 130 feet from the main plaza. A steep but short climb takes you to the top. The west and east parts of the pyramid has some interesting stucco replicas of the original covered freezes. The pyramid consists (as in other Mayan constructions) of a a low terrace designed to hold additional stone buildings, after a temple was built another was built on top of it and so on, depending on the number of kings who reigned.

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If you want to visit the ruins you must take a hand-cranked cable ferry from the small village of San José Succotz accross the Mopan River. After that there´s a mile to the main entrance of the site. The ferry is free of charge (but tips are always welcome).

From where we were staying in the San Ignacio area, the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich (shoo-NAHN-too-nich) were very close at hand. A 15-minute walk brought us to the hand-cranked ferry across the Mopan River (see my 'Local Customs' tip), after which, we made about a 1 mile uphill jungle walk away from the river on a good paved road. We were out and about early (8:30 AM), so it was quite a peaceful stroll as we came upon the entrance to the Xunantunich Archaeological Reserve. In addition to the ticket office, run by the Belize Institute of Archaeology (US$5 pp entry), off to the left of this scene is a small gift/drinks shop and restroom facilities. There were not yet any visitor vehicles in the parking lot and only one other (Canadian) couple from our Trek Stop accommodations was ahead of us as we continued up the road to the ruins at the top of the hill.

If you visit Xunantunich, you must climb to the top of the tallest pyramid, called "El Castillo." The views from the top were the highlight of the tour. We were able to see the smaller pyramids, the Cayo District, and part of Guatemala.

After our morning walk to Xunantunich, we chilled out on the internet for a while and then had lunch. However, by 1 PM the heat had built up quite nicely to the 30 C (86 F) range, so we decided to take advantage of the Trek Stop's river tubing adventure package. For US$10 each, we hopped in the rear of one of their pick-up trucks and they drove us to the Mopan River just upstream of the hand-cranked ferry to Xunantunich (note the local guy in the photo standing by a small island out in the shallow rapids). There, we were both outfitted with life jackets, which were attached by a small rope to the large rubber inner tubes that we were both given.

It was then into the water as we began our 'jungle cruise' adventure! This was a really fun trip as just the two of us floated down the winding Mopan for more than two hours, traversing a series of eight Class II and III rapids, interspersed with quiet stretches of water. These sections were very peaceful as the thickly forested banks drifted by and colourful Amazon Kingfishers flew past. Of course this was after the first set of rapids tipped us both out of our tubes, but that was the only time that happened. Each set of rapids was fun as you could hear the roar of the water as you floated closer. Usually there was a small island in the middle of the river at each of these, and it was difficult to guess which way was the safest to avoid the deepest drop into a back-swirling pool (Sue got caught in a couple of those but my 'inertia' carried me through!). Also had to remember to bring your butt up out of the water and lay straight as a board on the tubes to avoid scraping on the rocks as we went over these ledges! We had a fantastic time, at last reaching the hotel beside the final Clarissa Falls rapids. There, we paddled into shore and called the Trek Stop from their bar area - the truck soon arrived to pick us up. I don't have any good photos of this because we did not take any glasses, watches, cameras or anything for this one!